Betrayal by Phillip Margolin is the seventh book in the Robin Lockwood series. Robin is a well-known and distinguished defense attorney in Portland, Oregon. Ten years ago, while going to University, she made a living as a mixed martial arts fighter. She gave that up when she was knocked out and ended up with a concussion. The fighter that knocked her out of the profession was Mandy Kerrigan. Kerrigan is at the end of her career, but when she is arrested for a quadruple murder. When Robin finds out that she will be using a court appointed lawyer, she requests the judge give her the case. Robin is sure that Mandy didn't do it, and with her investigator and herself, she follows all the evidence and her intuition to do her best to prove that someone else could have been the murderer.

Betrayal is a well written and plotted legal thriller. I have enjoyed all the books in this series, and although each story is contained within the covers of the book, I recommend you read them all in order to follow Robin's personal and professional growth. In a previous book, Robin's husband was killed during one of her cases and she is finally ready to date again. As the investigation plays out, there are more than a few suspects. The family has a lot of flaws and there could have been any number of people who wanted one of more of them dead. Of course, once a case goes to trial and someone has been indicted, the police stop looking for anyone else, but that doesn't stop Robin. There are plenty of twists in this one with several red herrings. I was invested in this story and wanted to know who killed the family. The evidence seemed to lead in one direction, but knowing Phillip Margolin, the obvious killer would not be the one. I was surprised at the final reveal. I love how Robin puts things together, and how her brain works. This was another enjoyable Robin Lockwood story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.
I have enjoyed all of the Robin Lockwood books and this one did not disappoint. She is a smart and gritty character! She was the epitome of a bad ass in this book.! The mystery was kind of weak and obvious in my opinion but I still enjoyed the book and the other characters in her world in Portland. I am really happy to see Robin moving on with her life after suffering such a terrible tragedy in an earlier book

Another great addition to Margolin’s body of work. I had not read him recently and I was not disappointing. Gripping from start to finish.

Margolin delivers another Robin Lockwood compelling, legal thriller. I think what I liked most about this book is that I like the characters, especially Robin Lockwood. I liked the mystery, actually thought I solved it early but didn’t expect the twist. This is a nice addition to the Lockwood series. To legal thriller fans who haven’t picked up this series, this book 7 can be read as a stand alone, but you will get more out of the story reading the earlier books first.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Defense Attorney Robin Lockwood finds someone from her past when she was a MMA fighter. They need her help because they have been accused of murder.
This is the second book that I have read by this author and really enjoy them.
Thanks to publisher Minotaur Books and to NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF’d at 50

I was so bored out of my mind while reading this book. Also it never mentioned any where it was part of a series.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I love the Robin Lockwood series. It’s such a good legal thriller series and I just can’t wait for the next book!

These books satisfy my Law and Order loving heart.

What I Liked:

I LOVE how these covers look. So eye catching.

Robin Lockwood. I’ll say it a million times- that woman gets shit done. She’s a great character.

How the series is evolving as Robin’s life has changed. Robin’s had some hard knocks the past couple or so books and the series is slowly evolving to take that into account.



Bottom line: Legal thriller fans, you gotta check out the Robin Lockwood series!



*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur for this ARC!
I didn’t realize this book was a part of a series when starting it. I felt ask though it was all over the place but that may have been the result of coming into the Robin Lockwood series at book 7. I think I would have liked it better if I knew more backstory of the main character. Overall, it was just okay for me.

Attorney Robin Lockwood put herself through law school while she was a very good MMA fighter. It is now a decade later, and her latest client is a woman she fought in the ring, Mandy Kerrigan. A family of four has been brutally murdered, and since Mandy has the means, motive and opportunity, she has been arrested and will soon be tried for the quadruple murders. Robin has to put her feelings aside when it comes to defending Mandy.

For Mandy, there are a lot of reasons why her arrest moved to a trial. For one thing, her career is fizzling. Also, she had an altercation with the father of the family that was witnessed by many. It might be that the intended victim was Margaret Finch, but now Robin is determined to find out why the rest of her family was murdered.

Robin's reputation in the courtroom is legendary, but the prosecuting attorney is a man that she is drawn to. will Deputy District Attorney Tom Marks and Robin have a chance to get together now that they will be pitted against one another in the courtroom?

Betrayal is a fabulous book and an excellent addition to a winning series. I have read all of the books in the series, but have scheduled this series for a reread as I want to spend more time with Robin before book eight is released.

Many thanks to St. Martins/Minotaur Books and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Really enjoyed this new book.. I liked the way the characters were introduced and how the connections between them Became more apparent and interlocked as the story progressed.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was an ok read for me. The story felt a little jumbled at times and slow moving. I'm glad I pushed through because overall it was a good story.

I enjoyed this story, but found it a bit jumbled in my opinion. This may be because this was my first Robin Lockwood book, and this is #7 in the series, so there are probably things others that follow this series would understand where it was confusing for me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with the MCs. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

Gritty and intense! Complex and compelling! An edgy mystery full pulse-pounding suspense, damning secrets and one shocking surprise after another! The fast pace of the of the twisted, wildly-captivating plot kept me swiping the pages feverishly long past my bedtime.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this title.

Robin Lockwood is back and in the courtroom. She is defending her nemesis and might lose her life in the process. A murder case with multiple suspects will definitely keep you wondering in this novel. Each question makes you wonder what is going to happen next.

I loved this book. The characters were easy to follow and well-rounded, so you could get a feel for them. Also, I really enjoying reading when Robin is in the courtroom, because the last couple books in this series she has not been in court or as second-chair and it was a change of pace for this novel.

Well done!

Margolin delivers another entertaining legal thriller. The story flows at a good pace and the characters are believable.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Phillip Margolin is such a wonderful writer and I especially love his Robin Lockwood character. This character is tough yet vulnerable. She has known success and defeat. She is a fabulously complex character that will entice new readers with her honesty and humanity. This story is very twisty and I caught the discrepancy early on but did not know how it would be resolved. It was so simple as to be a blinding lightbulb moment. Highly recommended!

Published by Minotaur Books on November 7, 2023

Betrayal is a legal thriller minus the thrills. Phillip Margolin goes through the motions of plot development in a story that features a lawyer, but the plot is weak, trial drama is negligible, and the lawyer’s competence is questionable.

Robin Lockwood found time to train for MMA bouts when she was in law school. It’s impossible to do two full-time endeavors and expect to do either of them well, so it isn’t surprising that Lockwood got the snot pounded out of her when she was asked to fight a superior opponent as a replacement for a fighter who dropped out. Lockwood quit the fighting game and became a criminal defense lawyer. Unfortunately, her skills as a courtroom fighter are as weak as her cage fighting skills.

Years later, Lockwood’s MMA opponent, Mandy Kerrigan, is on a downhill slide. She’s arrested for multiple murders related to a young man who sold her performance enhancing drugs that turned out not to be as undetectable as she was promised. She was suspended from fighting because of her positive drug test. The killer invaded the drug dealer’s home and not only took out her dealer but also the dealer’s sister and parents. Naturally, Kerrigan wants Lockwood to defend her.

The case against Kerrigan is ridiculously weak. Someone saw her knocking on the front door of the house where the victims were killed, but nobody saw her enter or exit the home. The killer entered through the back door, not the front, making the presence of anyone on the front porch less than compelling evidence. Kerrigan’s DNA isn’t found inside the home. None of the victims’ blood is on her clothing. The police don’t have a murder weapon. Kerrigan might have had a weak motive to kill the kid who sold her the PEDs that caused her suspension, but she has no motive to kill the other family members. Lockwood acts as if the case is formidable, but in the real world it probably wouldn’t have been charged.

Other crimes contribute to the plot. A mobster is operating a scheme to defraud insurance companies by staging accidents, sending the alleged injury victim to a crooked doctor, and using a crooked lawyer to settle with a crooked claims adjuster. When the scheme causes a driver’s death, the mobster threatens to murder the fake injury victim and the lawyer, while the husband of the dead driver decides to murder the mobster. This seems like a lot of unlikely killing over an insurance scam, but the various threats and deaths are arguably relevant to Kerrigan’s trial. Since Lockwood is looking into the mobster, she is at risk of being yet another victim. Fortunately she knows how to punch people, at least if she’s in a cage.

The sister of the PED seller had bullied a high school girl. That girl killed herself, creating the unlikely possibility that the suicide victim’s parents murdered the bully and her entire family for revenge. The dead father in the family owed gambling debts, while the heir to the family’s estate is a felon who was recently released from prison. Alternative suspects thus abound, further weakening the dubious case against Kerrigan.

Margolin often tells the reader that death penalty trials require enormous preparation, but we rarely see Lockwood doing much of anything. She interviews a few witnesses and assigns an associate to review discovery that she should be reading herself. We learn more about the outfits she wears than the actual work she does to prepare for trial.

Lockwood is trying to get past the dramatic death of her fiancé three years earlier. To that end, she has been chastely dating (more like jogging with) the prosecutor who, predictably enough, is assigned to prosecute Kerrigan. They meet to resolve the conflict while establishing that they are both true professionals and caring humans who put ethics above all else. In other words, they’re pretty dull, although they make a predictable decision to shag at the first opportunity.

Legal thrillers generally succeed or fail based on the drama of trial scenes. In Betrayal, trial scenes are cursory. They also lack energy. It shouldn’t be possible to suck the drama out of a murder trial, but Margolin manages to do it. Lockwood also manages to overlook an obvious bit of evidence against her client, calling into question her ability as a defense attorney. Maybe she was concussed too often when she was fighting in MMA matches.

Legal thrillers also benefit from discussions of the Inside Baseball of trials. Margolin gives the reader some procedural information that everyone knows but ignores the strategy and tactics that make trials so fascinating. In short, while Margolin offers the skeleton of a story that might have been interesting, he adds insufficient flesh to bring the story alive. I would only recommend the novel to die-hard fans of legal thrillers who need something to read while awaiting another novel by Turow or Lescroart.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I have become such a big fan of Margolin's Robin Lockwood series. Robin, a former MMA fighter now lawyer now defends Mandy, the person she lost her last fight to, who is accused of a quadruple homicide. There is an endless amount of suspects who wanted at least one member of the family dead. Robin will have the fight of her life in court, especially since the DA is her new love interest.

An engaging legal mystery with a fast pace and great ending!

10 years earlier

Robin Lockwood is a first-year law student at Yale and rising the ranks as an MMA fighter, something she developed a passion for as a young girl growing up with brothers who participated in wrestling. Though Robin is a rising star, she isn’t in the very top of the league just yet.

Until her manager Bruce Dowling tells her that tMandy Kerrigan is set to fight for a spot in the championship, but her opponent got injured and had to drop out. Robin is eligible to take the injured fighter’s place. Against Dowling’s advice, Robin jumps at the opportunity to prove herself in the televised fight. But Dowling’s warning is fortuitous, as Robin is knocked out first round and it ends her career in professional MMA fighting, solidifying her path to become an attorney.

Present day

Robin is a successful defense attorney and she is slowly moving on from the death of her fiancé Jeff over a year ago. When District Attorney Tom McGee asks Robin out, she realizes she’s ready to try moving on with dating finally. They agree to take things slowly, but it seems promising from their first date.

When a prominent lawyer and her family are assassinated in their home, the prime suspect is none other than Mandy Kerrigan, the MMA fighter who ended Robin’s career ten years ago. Mandy shares that she beat up one of the victims after he gave her drugs that resulted in a suspension of her career, and she was seen at the home around the time of the murder. Robin agrees to help Mandy’s defense team, feeling some kinship with Mandy over their shared history.

But things become complicated when Robin learns Tom McGee is the DA assigned to the trial. Robin quickly informs both Mandy and Tom of the complication, and they agree to put their relationship on hold until the trial is over. The case is made more complicated in that it is up for the death sentence if Mandy is found guilty. Robin will need to use all of her wits to help Mandy avoid conviction and a probable death sentence, but the victims have some ties to the mob that may put Robin’s own life in danger…

Review

One thing I’ve enjoyed about Phillip Margolin’s Robin Lockwood books is that the pace is kept fast and the story is tight. Legal thrillers can get bogged down explaining complicated legal nuance related to the plot, but Margolin doesn’t fall into this trap.

The victims in this case are the Finch family, and it quickly became clear that any of the family members could have been the primary victim. This family had some skeletons in their closet that quickly come to light.

Mandy is an attractive suspect and it was easy to see why the police narrowed in on her. In addition to her motive, she was seen at the Finch house not long before the murder by a neighbor. The door being locked suggests that no one else came or went through the front door after she left, leading to the conclusion that she must have committed the murders.

Mandy is a tough character. But as Robin knows better than anyone, a client being rough around the edges or having committed some crimes doesn’t make them a murderer. Robin believes Mandy, but she knows that it will be difficult to get her a not guilty verdict and she is concerned about the possibility of a death sentence.

I liked the relationship with Tom McGee and their connection. When it becomes clear that Robin taking Mandy’s case may be a conflict of interest because of her blossoming relationship with Tom, Robin and Tom are both professionals about the situation. They agree that they will pause their relationship until after the trial, and they also agree that they want a fair trial and will respect whichever side wins.

A fascinating case, quick pacing, and an unexpected conclusion make this a great book, whether readers are new to Robin Lockwood or have read the whole series.

Thank you to Minotaur Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Making the decision to defend her former MMA opponent was not an easy one for Robin Lockwood. The clues point the finger at her client and the prosecuting attorney is her new dating interest. But the victims have left a long list of potential suspects and Robin is determined to prove her client innocent. Phillip Margolin is an accomplished author who gives his fans exactly what they want. Well built plot lines, excellent cast of characters and lots and lots of twists and turns to keep us guessing.